Just started anxiety medication and can someone tell me how they survived until medicine started working.

[Ready2help]

Please just need advice on how you survived waiting for medication to start working. I feel awful and anxious.

[IncognitoC]

I am on an antidepressant medication that also works for anxiety. I guess I just had the anticipation of possibly feeling better.

[Asif_Melton]

It's depends which medication you are using,If you are using esitalopram , then will take few days or even week for work properly.

If you are taking Xanax then it will start within hours.

[Ready2help in reply to Asif_Melton]

I am taking busprione. Right now I feel awful. Hopefully it will help. Until then, I don't know what to do

[Asif_Melton in reply to Ready2help]

It will take 2 to 4 weeks for proper results.Talk to you doctor if you are feeling not well, and your doctor will change your medicine maybe.

[gajh]

I am sorry that you are feeling awful and anxious. Are you trying to do things to distract yourself? Music, meditation, reading, exercise, anything to take your mind off of just waiting for your medication to work. Focusing on that is just going to make it harder. It is going to take time, but you will be ok. Being on this site is a great place to be. At least you know you are not alone with how you are feeling. Focus on self care.

[yhsbirny]

You say you are taking Buspar (buspirone), which is very controversial as a lot of doctors and patients say it does absolutely nothing and is a waste of time (this now includes my own psychiatrist who has recently stopped prescribing it due to no results; do some research on it). I tried it several different times and got nothing out of it. I guess it helps some people, and I am sorry to be so blunt, but I hate to see people waste time on something like Buspar because the doctor is afraid to prescribe a real anti-anxiety medicine like Lorazepam or Klonopin (a benzodiazapine or "benzo") which works from the first pill (they are afraid you might get "addicted") . Ask your doctor if you can get a low dose of a benzo; their reply will tell you their attitude about benzos and whether maybe you should see a different doctor. Benzos are much more helpful and much less dangerous than a lot of doctors have been brainwashed into thinking; again, do your research. I have been on a high dose of Lorazepam for 12 years and would not be here without it; has helped me at least as much if not more than all the anti-depressants i have taken thru the years,

[Nothing_but_books in reply to yhsbirny]

How do you manage tolerance?

[yhsbirny in reply to Nothing_but_books]

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking about why I have not developed tolerance to the med so that it doesn't work for me anymore, or how I avoid having to keep going higher on the dose. That is a good question and I have wondered that myself many times and talked to my doctor about it. I don't know the answer but I have been on the same dose of 4 mg/day for years now and it still helps . The only thing I can say is that I have researched this and find posts from many people on many different websites who have been on the same dose (some larger, most smaller than my dose) for many years and say it still helps without having to go up. Maybe some people do develop a tolerance and some don't due to genetics or whatever.

PS. The reason many doctors are afraid of "addiction" and won't prescribe benzos is because you can't go "cold turkey" off a benzo, you have to have a phased withdrawal (no different than with any psychiatric medication, especially the SNRIs). I always tell anybody who asks, that I'll deal with withdrawal if and when I have to; all I know is they have really saved my life by keeping me from falling too deeply into suicidal thinking.

[Nothing_but_books in reply to yhsbirny]

Thank you for answering so clearly. I'm surprised to read that your experience isn't unique.

[Mermaid55]

I learned EFT. Tapping helps.